Wireless communication devices are continuously integrating new and enhanced features and capabilities, that leverage an ability to remotely transmit and receive data using wireless communication capabilities. As the features and capabilities are added and/or enhanced, there often is a need to communicate wirelessly an ever increasing amount of information/data in order to support the added and/or enhanced features and capabilities of the device. However, increasing a device's ability to communicate information/data wirelessly is complicated by a further desire to limit the overall size of the device, which can sometimes make desirable an ability to share some of the circuitry and structure, which is used to support various forms of wireless communications.
Diplexers can facilitate the sharing of resources by allowing multiple separate signals to be merged onto a single terminal through frequency domain multiplexing. For example, a diplexer can help facilitate a pair of ports each respectively associated with its own transceiver being coupled to a common shared port that can be associated with a single antenna. Diplexer are generally different than a combiner or splitter in that each of the ports to be merged are often frequency selective, which can also serve to allow multiple separate signals to be merged while helping to reduce the potential for interference between the signals being merged.
Some forms of wireless cellular communications, in order to increase the rate of data that can be communicated, will allow a larger amount of frequency bandwidth to be utilized in support of the communication through carrier aggregation, which can sometimes make use of non-contiguous frequency bands. The increase in available bandwidth for supporting a particular communication will often allow for a corresponding increase in bitrate.
Conventionally, bands having carrier frequencies below about 800 MHz are referred to as ultralow bands. Bands between 800 MHz and 1500 MHz are often referred to as low bands. Bands between 1500 MHz and 2200 MHz are often referred to as mid bands, and bands greater than 2200 MHz are often referred to as high bands. Previously, cellular service providers have supported a number of two-downlink carrier aggregation band combinations, including simultaneous ultralow band or low band operation with mid band or high band operation. Tunable antenna matching with diplexing functionality including diplexers having a split at about 1500 MHz, have been used to support at least some of these forms of carrier aggregation. However, cellular service providers are wanting to support an even greater variety of two cellular band carrier aggregation, as well as an aggregation of an even greater number of bands.
The present innovators have correspondingly recognized that tunable matching circuits with triplexing, quadruplexing and potentially even higher degrees of multiplexing functionality can be used to support a greater variety of carrier aggregation. This can also allow multiple types of wireless communication to be merged for use with a single antenna, such as the transmission and/or receipt of wireless signals in support of cellular communications, as well as the transmission and/or receipt of wireless signals in support of other forms of wireless communication including a global positioning system, as well as various WiFi type communication systems. The innovators have further recognized that the triplexing, quadruplexing and/or multiplexing functionality in a tunable matching circuit can be provided by using one or more sets of cascaded diplexers.